The Colors In A Tail
by sctwilightvampwolfgal
Summary: Rose knew that her tail didn't mirror what was beyond the sky enough to truly capture the kind of life that she wanted one day for herself. *Inspired off of Day Three's prompt for MerMay by UNIQUELEELIKESART.*


It glimmered like the first cast of starlight hitting the surface of the sea, like the long forgotten melodies that Rose still sometimes tried to sing, and yet it would be considered a dull glimmer next to other tails that contained so much darkness and so much light all at once. Rose watched as she stretched it out, claiming the cool night claim as she watched each little silver sparkle light up like the stars before her. It wasn't much of a galaxy, as you could only see on her tail the types of patterns that you saw on an average starry night.

Rose sighed; your tail told of how you were to be one day, if you could read it. The more fantastical, the more alluring, and you had a bright, bright future. She flipped it, dunking it back into the water as if it never mattered more than a passing glance and turned her attention to the night sky, watching the glimmer that she secretly dreamed about and savored. On the worst nights, it reminded her of her tail and no longer held the same glimmer of fascination to her, and on the best kinds of days, she make believed that she could see so much farther past this planet.

"Rose?" Juleka slid up to a rock next to her, and when Rose turned to face her, her breath was lost in the cooling air. Juleka had the most beautiful tail of anyone that she'd ever known. It glimmered exotic seeming colors of dark purple, of black, of silver starlight flecks, and beyond. It swirled like the galaxy did, and somehow in its depths, sometimes Juleka was lost. She was believed to have the brightest future, and her parents were already trying to marry her off to a prince. Juleka hated it, though no one else knew quite why.

Luka's tail didn't quite pale next to his sister's either, and Rose called it a lucky family. Others called it genetics.

"Yeah?" Rose shifted, letting her tail once again leave the water, though she hated how it almost dulled next to Juleka's as she shifted closer, letting the pale light of the moon make both of their tails glimmer. It was always a kind of radiant that Rose preferred over the sun, insecurities aside.

"Why are you out so late?" Juleka leaned back, carefully so as to not spill over the other side of the rock and accidentally plunge back into the sea. She moved her tail in light, half-distracted strokes in the water.

"I-I wanted a moment's peace." Honesty was always easier; she hated trying to memorize lies like some distant lifeline.

"Did you get one?" Juleka turned the full weight of her gaze on her, and Rose felt exposed to all of her insecurities and her sometimes hopeless clamor to grasp something real and reassuring.

"Not really." She sighed, "I worry sometimes, about my tail, about my future. I used to think it was pretty, and Mom always reassured me that it was, but now, I just don't want to be like Mom and Dad." Her father had been caught in a fishing boat's propellors and had ended up miles and miles away and lost when he managed to escape. Her parents were separated for years after that. The other mers called it to curse of the black tail. Rose's father's tail was a pure, soft looking black, dull compared to others' tails.

"You won't have that happen." Juleka shifted, "Mers learn from their mistakes, and anyway, you're so sweet, I know that things will go well for you." She dipped her tail back into the sea as if ashamed of its colors.

"Juleka," Rose took a deep breath and wondered if it were easier just to slip back into the sea as if melting into dark shadows, "You know what our tails say."

"They don't say anything." Juleka shrugged her shoulders, "All they say is someway for adults to capture and chain us to some magical routine. If your tail is more colorful and bright enough to match the galaxy, you must do what we say you must do, and call it a blessing." Juleka sighed, "I don't want that."  
"I do, though." Rose shifted closer, "I want to be lucky and to marry a prince or to be happy with lots of kids or to know that I'm loved."

"A prince does not want a lot of kids, nor is he obligated to love you." Juleka bristled, "I already fell for someone else, who in turn fell for someone else, and now, I am alone. Does that make our tails prophesy?"  
"No...?" Rose sighed, "I don't know love, or at least not like that." She stared back up at the sky, that their tails tried so hard to mirror. "I want to be like the galaxy vast and endless, pretty and 'defiant,' and yet I'm not." Sometimes she imagined that Juleka was the galaxy in all those little ways.

"Defiant? How is the galaxy defiant?" Juleka asked, and somehow Rose thought she looked tired and worn down, like some of the adults that they knew.

"It doesn't stop growing, right? It doesn't have to sit here and wonder if it's beautiful, and that makes it confident." Rose gazed up, "And, my tail doesn't mirror it."

"Your tail's gorgeous, Rose. Don't let anyone take that away from you." Juleka flipped her position on the rock to dive back into the sea, and Rose followed behind, somehow knowing that she was supposed to. Maybe the night was just too long for these thoughts and the bitter pain of thinking too much about whether a tail is simply beautiful, a life is gloriously perfect, or that happiness can be dictated by a simple flash of a color, and she caught her breath at the hint of red on Juleka's tail, once again. It always surprised her, how it didn't seem to belong, and yet it fit perfectly in with her and made her all the more beautiful.


End file.
